I have heard in the past that one of the best ways of checking the level of a person’s honesty is by asking for his or (especially) her age. Using an armchair method of research, six out of ten people are likely to give you a wrong age, two out of the other four who would tell you their real age, would only do so after some form of hesitation or mumbling. The other two who would be completely open and honest, would either be kids who do not understand the need to cover up their age, or people who are above the age of 40 and must have celebrated their 40th birthday publicly! There is always a huge fuss surrounding this age matter that one begins to wonder why so much emphasis is placed on it. From politics, to sports (especially football), to even relationships, age is regarded as much more than just a number.
The norm around the world is for an older guy to date, have a relationship or marry a lady younger than he is. It is even an issue sometimes if the lady is seen to be a lot younger than the guy. Not everyone accepts the union between say a 46 year old guy and a 21 year old girl. The guy will most likely have to explain what he would be doing with a small girl. He would either be looked at as somewhat irresponsible for loving someone who was born when he was already an adult, or probably seen to have had a history of child abuse, without people considering the fact that “love knows no age”! But it is even tougher when it is the opposite (i.e. an older woman and a younger man).
I once had a brief relationship with a lady who was about 3 years older than me. Things looked to be going on smoothly until few weeks down the line when she remembered to ask me the question; how old are you? After I answered with evidence of an identity card, she replied saying that she was not sure we could continue seeing each other anymore since we really had no future together. Not putting on a sad face, I knew from the start that the relationship might not survive for long due to the age gap. Although, she claimed not to mind having the relationship but unfortunately the society will mind and our families would mind even more. Regardless of the fact that we might have started falling in love, we called things off and became just friends.
There are examples of relationships that worked despite the huge age difference either from the man or the woman. We have seen cases in Hollywood, where these relationships have worked. The late musician Aaliyah (then 16 years old), dated a much older R. Kelly. There was so much talk then about how wrong it was. But Aaliyah simply replied all the critics with a hit single aptly titled “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number”.
Demi Moore divorced her long standing husband Bruce Willis, only to end up with a much younger man. She was also with Ashton Kutcher for a couple of years even though there was almost a 20 year age gap between them. Similarly, the current French President got married to his teacher. In Nigeria, Richard Mofe Damijo, was very happily married and in love with the media heavyweight, May Ellen-Eziekel, who was older than he was. They were together until she died tragically, showing that only death could do them part and not age. All these show that relationships can work as long as you can put love first before age.